There is an affinity between the Irish and the Mexicans, and a mutual antipathy towards France “It’s ABF for us,” says Dara Murray, a 40-year-old Dublin native married to a Mexican and living in Guadalajara, Jalisco. “Anyone but France.” Thierry Henry’s handballed goal booked France’s ticket to South Africa and broke Irish hearts in all corners of the world, so it’s hardly a revelation that Irish will be adopting the green shirt of Mexico when El Tri take on France in Polokwane today. • Follow the Guardian’s World Cup team on Twitter • Sign up to play our great Fantasy Football game • Stats centre: Get the lowdown on every player • The latest team-by-team news, features and more It won’t be the first time the Irish have come together with Mexicans though. The most notable, and incredible bonding came with the Saint Patrick’s battalion when Irish troops fighting in the US army deserted to join the Mexican army during the 1846-48 Mexican-American War. The event is still celebrated in both Mexico and Ireland today via street names, annual parades and songs. Then, in the 1860s, Irish veterans of the war helped kick out the French. “It gives us a common bond with the Mexicans,” says Paul Kenny, another Irishman living in Guadalajara with two young children with dual citizenships. “We’ve both had to try to defeat imperial might.” The story starts with the immigration of over one million poor, Catholic Irishmen to the United States and Canada between 1840 and 1850. “They got there and couldn’t get work. Job adverts said ‘No Irish, No Niggers,'” explains Dr Michael Hogan, the author of The Irish Soldiers of Mexico and the historical authority on the episode. With tensions between Mexico and the United States rising, many of the new migrants were offered citizenship and land to fight against Mexico. With little option, they accepted. “They got to Mexico and realised they were being used to invade a Catholic country and while they were on the border they could hear the church bells in Mexico,” Hogan says. The Irish made up about a third of the US army but there was not even one Catholic chaplain and soldiers were forced to go to the Protestant service every Sunday. Asked to fight and kill other poor Catholics and being denied the chance to go to mass, which would’ve been in Latin as in Ireland, around 75 Irish soldiers awaiting orders to attack trickled into Mexico and didn’t come back. And that was even before the war had begun. “Then the war started,” Hogan says. “The US artillery attacked the Catholic cathedral in Monterrey where the Mexican general had sent civilians.” Many innocent deaths later, more Irish started deserting the US army and one Irishman, John O’Riley, organised them into the Saint Patrick’s battalion. O’Riley, about whom there is a slightly cheesy Hollywood film entitled One Man’s Hero, starring Tom Berenger, rose to the rank of major in the Mexican Army and the battalion became a thorn in the side of the US army. Although the battalion consisted of ferocious fighters and had a decisive influence in some battles, the Yankee army could not be stopped and Mexico lost 55% of its land in the decidedly dodgy Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo in 1848. Those Irish that deserted during the war were hung, while those that had switched sides before hostilities were let off with a branding, public whipping and hard labour. Nevertheless, the battalion became heroes in Mexico and part of Mexican folklore. Every 12 September in Mexico City a military parade and mass is celebrated in the plaza where the first soldiers were hanged, and street names such as “Irish Martyrs” and “St Patrick” are found in many Mexican cities. Fourteen years after the Mexican-American War ended in 1848, the French successfully invaded and took Mexico City, leading to the crowning of an Austrian prince, Maximilian, as Emperor of Mexico. He didn’t last long and was booted out and executed in 1867. Many Irish veterans of the Mexican-American War were present. In football, the French have irked the Mexicans, too, when a journalist dubbed their team les rats verts , the green rats, at the 1966 World Cup. Mexicans seem happy to have the Guadalajara Irish community’s support against France, according to Frank Cronin, a Dubliner who runs the Irish-themed Temple Bar in Guadalajara: “A lot of Mexicans are coming into the bar and telling me that the team is going to kick France’s arse for us.” Mexico France World Cup 2010 Group A World Cup 2010 guardian.co.uk
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World Cup 2010: France are the common enemy for Mexico and Ireland
